EMC Storage Technology Company

On Friday October 28th, 2011 I went to EMC with a few professors and some other students. While at EMC we were able to tour their kind of storage facility of their personal warehouse and  in a way their factory. After that we went to see their functioning storage facility and testing facility. They have an entire facility/room designated solely to testing. They spend tons of money daily to continuously test their equipment and make sure that it works and is backward compatible. By doing this they can maintain their level of professionalism and credibility. EMC has 25% of their target market and their closest competitor only has 15% so they are far ahead of the pack when it comes to their industry. EMC is located in North Carolina about an hour from North Carolina A&T State University. The faculty and staff were extremely knowledgable about everything happening around them and were really on top of everything. In the warehouse there were people working there that were not actual employees of EMC but they were contracted through another company so that EMC could have exactly as many employees as necessary at any given time rather than having a lot on payroll and wasting money. When we toured the facilities they went in depth as to why they did certain things. For instance their floors are 3 feet off the actual ground to allow cooled air to flow through the floors and keep the equipment cool and running at the best possible pace and rate. A lot goes into making sure that the facility is in peak condition to maintain the hardware. When clients come to EMC they can tour the facility and see where their information will be stored, what kind of security there is on the building and things like that. Overall the experience was phenomenal and I am extremely glad that I went.

Thurgood Marshall College Fund

I am currently in New York City with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for the annual Thurgood Marshall Leadership Conference. Here I am learning a lot about what it will take for me to become successful after college and in my field of IT as well. I have used this time and opportunity to talk and network with various company representatives and actually asked them what would be expected of me if I were to obtain a job with their company in my field. They had very good answers and were very educational as well. The main thing that employers of IT employees focus on is your technical skills. Not how you are dressed, not what you look like, but if you can do your job. That is it in a nut shell. When it comes to other jobs like sales and other things like if you are going to be the face of the company then soft skills are very necessary but in my case I wont be reporting to work in a suit or even slacks. Some people even told me that they come to work in jeans and sneakers sometimes. This leadership conference has been extremely educational for me and I am extremely privileged to be here. I think that if there were any justifiable reasons to miss class then this is definitely one of them. Tomorrow morning will be a job fair where I will get another chance to talk and network with employers and I am extremely excited about that. These employers are among the top in the world. They include Wal-Mart, AT&T, Atria and 30+ others. The employers are extremely receptive and interested in talking to us as students and that is mind blowing and so exciting to be around so many big name people and among all black students. I am having an excellent time and learning a lot.

Open Source Licensing

Open Source Licensing is basically when someone is granted permission to alter existing software. The easiest way to explain it would be to a drivers license. If you learn how to drive a car(code programs) that is fine and no one can stop you from learning that. If you want to drive a government approved car on public roads however(alter existing software) then you need a license from the government(the author of that software) to do so. A great deal of open source licenses give you the ability to alter the software for personal use, however a few big name ones actually let you alter them and actually assist them with feedback. Mozilla Firefox and Linux are notorious for this. Acquiring an open source license can be beneficial to you if you are new to coding. If you have just begun and aren’t familiar with exactly how to do various things like start the code, then acquiring an existing and functioning one can be extremely beneficial. As students in our current generation we are a lot more technologically advanced than a lot of older people. This can actually make us an asset to them when it comes to their software. Personally I am very proficient at Adobe Photoshop and I have never taken a single class teaching me anything about Photoshop. I have been using it along with tutorials myself and learned from friends. This is an example of how formal education or age can be irrelevant when it comes to technology. Open source licensing makes it easier and legal for people like you and I to learn or assist existing programming teams all over the world, often for free. Open source licensing is often unrestricted access to the software code as well, this allows it to be altered and changed around without limits at little to no cost to whoever wants to do it.

The Cloud...again

I have a previous blog that is geared completely toward "The Cloud." This one is going to be a little different. I am gearing this one toward cloud security. First and foremost, some things should not be uploaded to the internet under any circumstances. There is no absolute fool proof mechanism when it comes to protecting your data. If you happen to leave your account logged into a computer and walk away then anyone in the vicinity could easily download or email themselves some or all of your files. Cloud security really comes down to you as an individual. You have to be very careful when it comes to sharing your data as well. If you upload a file to the cloud and send someone a link to retrieve it themselves then that is fine. One thing to remember is that anyone with that direct link to your file can usually download it. So if you choose to upload a file for a purpose it would be a good idea to delete it and remove it from the internet as soon as possible after it's purpose has been served. Personally I have my resume on a few of my cloud networks and that's pretty much it. On other various sites I have pictures I have created in photoshop so that I can always access my work and show people what I have done. These things aren't too bad if they fall into the wrong hands. Other things like digital copies of your ID or your social security number should not be uploaded to any cloud anywhere, EVER. When files or information is uploaded to the cloud another issue is that your data can be hacked from anywhere. If you have a safe in your house then for someone to get what's inside at least they have to first gain access to your house. With the cloud hackers can work day and night on gaining access to your information. There are just a few aspects to cloud technology as far as security goes, I hope it was helpful to everyone.

A Day Without Cell Phone and Internet Access.

I could only imagine what it would be like to be "unplugged" as they say. I would like to do that at some point in my life but it has gotten to the point that I really kind of have to be connected at some point of every day. My girlfriend is studying abroad in South Korea and the only way to keep in touch especially because of the time difference is for her to text my cellphone from her computer. If I was unavailable then she might wonder what happened or something of that nature. I use the internet for all kinds of things every day as well, right now I am using it to complete this assignment for class and if I didn't do so then I would be out of an assignment grade since my professor doesn't accept late work under any circumstances. My mother also lives in Panama and the main way we keep in touch is via Skype or Gmail chat both of which utilize the wonderful services of the internet. I would feel extremely awkward without my cellphone, especially since I don’t do much besides go to work and class and go to my apartment. It would make my already boring life about 10 times more boring. I think that the internet and convenience of a cell phone are definitely abused to an extent but I also believe that they are somewhat necessary in today's society. I can remember when I didn’t have internet access at my house and I didn’t have a cellphone. I went outside a lot more and I spent more time with my cousins and family. Now I am in college though and I am constantly on the move and without the internet and my cellphone I would probably go weeks if not longer without talking to my family and that wouldn’t be a good feeling.